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A Quick Protools Vs Cubase Test

I did a little test between Cubase 4 and Protools HD, here it is:

I have been very fortunate to own a licensed copy of Waves SSl4000 which I use on everything and it rocks. Included in the Waves box were a few CDs with reference material and documents, among those CDs was a demonstration CD including pre-mixed stems of a dance track which had been put together especially for Waves, the track is called Take It Away.

I opened up the stems in Protools and sure enough with all the faders at 0db the track sounded pre-mixed, and actually sounded phatt.

So as a test I imported the same stems into Cubase 4 to hear the sound difference, to my dismay, the mix sounded identical to the protools mix, all the elemnts sounded them same, the kick, snare, the vocals, the stereo image was absolutley identical between the two mixes.

So, what does this tell us, Protools costs you around 7K to fully install, Cubase on the other hand costs you around 7 hundred.

One thing I did notice was that the master bus in Cubase clipped much more often than Protools clearly suggesting slightly lower mix-bus headroom at the Cubase master fader.

I am going to upload the files at some point for everyone to hear, but I welcome your views.

I have been very fortunate to own a licensed copy of Waves SSl4000 which I use on everything and it rocks. Included in the Waves box were a few CDs with reference material and documents, among those CDs was a demonstration CD including pre-mixed stems of a dance track which had been put together especially for Waves, the track is called Take It Away.

I opened up the stems in Protools and sure enough with all the faders at 0db the track sounded pre-mixed, and actually sounded phatt.

So as a test I imported the same stems into Cubase 4 to hear the sound difference, to my dismay, the mix sounded identical to the protools mix, all the elemnts sounded them same, the kick, snare, the vocals, the stereo image was absolutley identical between the two mixes.

So, what does this tell us, Protools costs you around 7K to fully install, Cubase on the other hand costs you around 7 hundred.

One thing I did notice was that the master bus in Cubase clipped much more often than Protools clearly suggesting slightly lower mix-bus headroom at the Cubase master fader.

I am going to upload the files at some point for everyone to hear, but I welcome your views.

Out!!

This test shows you nothing except playing back pre-mixed stems will sound the same on just about any platform.....

I don't like one more or less than the other. Both are quite capable apps..........

But, from your description, it sounds like this is all within the same computer. Are you playing Cubase through the Digi ASIO driver and out the
Digi I/O? If so, couldn't that cause some similarity in the sound?

I understand your point about the difference in price VS. your sonic comparison and have no reason to either dispute OR agree with them. But wouldn't the choice of I/O also figure into any comparisons? Especially since most buyers won't be getting a PT I/O along with their purchase of Cubase.